November 2013

Nico, Andy Warhol and the Velvets, New York City, 1967

Lou Reed died on 27 October, 2013. Can's Irmin Schmidt on the
sudden awakening brought on by The VU

1967. May, if I remember it right. I came home from a rehearsal
conducting the Bochumer Sinfoniker: Debussy, Schönberg, Cage.
[CAN manager] Hildegard sat there with Jon Hassell and Serge
Tcherepnin listening to a brand new record they had just
bought. Something strange happened. It was as if I had been
waiting for this sound: “I’m Waiting For My Man” – there he
was, destructive, encouraging, revealing. “The Black Angel’s
Death Song” was like a sudden awakening: I should change my
life. And I did. I formed CAN. Thank you Lou!